Local disaster plans in place for Sebastian, Crawford counties

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, local officials discussed how prepared their respective counties would be in handling a disaster of that caliber.

Sebastian County Judge David Hudson said disaster preparation is part of the responsibility of the county judge's office department of emergency management working under the oversight of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The county is responsible for having and maintaining an emergency operations plan, which includes an assessment of county assets and any potential losses that could happen as a result of natural disasters. It also includes how the county would respond to various types of disasters, such as flooding, tornadoes or other occurrences.

"... So that is built into our operations," Hudson said. "... For each county judge, it's an important duty and responsibility and we rely on our ... emergency management staffs, and the County Judges' Association (of Arkansas) also receives periodic training and makes it a point to stay in touch with emergency management."

The county judge's office also communicates and coordinates its emergency operations plan with all the first responder organizations in the county, Hudson said. This includes law enforcement, fire protection and EMS.

"... And then the support agencies that are out there to help us, including Red Cross, and having agreements for sheltering if someone loses their home due to a flood or a tornado," Hudson said. "And if we had a whole neighborhood that needed to be supported, we have sheltering agreements and options that we can put in place, food service through coordinating through the Red Cross. ..."

Hudson added that Sebastian County has had some experience with this.

"We've had the Katrina experience," Hudson said. "We've had tornado experience. We've had ice storm experience about sheltering and loss of power, and the implementation through declaring a disaster and going through the processes of getting assistance through the state and the federal government to bring in services and coordinating the delivery of those services in an effective way."

All of this would be involved in how Sebastian County would respond should a natural disaster take place, Hudson said.

Crawford County Judge Dennis Gilstrap said although the county deals with remnants of hurricanes, it more frequently has to contend with tornadoes and flooding. In the case of the latter, it is usually flash flooding.

"... We have three major drainage systems," Gilstrap said. "We have the Lee Creek, the Frog Bayou and the Mulberry drainage systems that come from the northern part of our county down to the Arkansas River, and in between there we have towns, and as the water down a drainage system starts to back up and fill up, well then, we do have some flooding issues that we could have to deal with. ..."

Gilstrap said the county monitors the weather and activates to the level it considers necessary when it sees an event of this nature happening.

"... We start trying to plan for how we're going to respond, and we monitor it as it goes, and ... our command system's flexible to where we actually activate emergency services to the level that we need," Gilstrap said.

Storm Shelters

Both counties also have storm shelters for use in the event of natural disasters. Jeff Turner, the assistant Sebastian County administrator for public safety, said there are about 28 storm shelters in the county. About 23 of these are located in Fort Smith, three in Greenwood, and one in both Mansfield and Lavaca. All these shelters belong to the school districts, but they are within the limits of these cities. The county has an additional shelter at Ben Geren Park.

Turner said these shelters are designed to withstand what the county would see in a tornado or what would be a significant rain event for it. They also vary in size. Turner estimated the range of the amount of people that could be contained in these shelters as being from 250 up to 750. However, they are not designed for long-term processes. They are instead short-term relocation facilities for severe weather.

"With those numbers, ... they're designed as a safe shelter, so they're designed to be used ... during the storm," Turner said. "Tornadoes typically aren't very long, so give yourself some time before, probably less time after, you're probably talking a maximum of 30 minutes in that shelter."

Turner said these storm shelters do not have certain aspects such as kitchens or shower facilities. For more long-term situations, the county would use places such as churches with mass seating, space for cots, many bathrooms and the ability to segregate men from women and children, among other features.

"Those traditionally in all of our communities in the county would have at least one of those facilities, and of course, some of our larger populations areas would have more, but I think a church or one of those type of groups ... those are who we would go through," Turner said.

Brad Thomas, the director of Crawford County Emergency Management, said Crawford County has eight storm shelters in Van Buren School District, four in the Alma district, two in the Mulberry district and one in the Cedarville district. Another shelter is currently being built in the Mountainburg School District.

Much like their Sebastian County counterparts, these shelters are not designed for long-term use.

"... If we're going to have a major disaster like Hurricane Harvey, we're going to look elsewhere for sheltering," Thomas said. "Either through the Salvation Army, Red Cross, churches, that's where we're going to go."

The Role of the media

An aspect both county judges described as important in the event of a natural disaster was working with local news media, including print, television and radio outlets. Gilstrap said if an evacuation was deemed necessary, that information would be delivered to the public through the media.

"In your emergency operations center ... in that group, you would have the news media, and you call it a joint information center," Gilstrap said. "And out of a joint information center, the best thing to get to the public is one story, one word to hold down on confusion. ..."

Gilstrap said as aspects such as evacuation routes and shelter locations are identified, that information will be provided to all the media outlets simultaneously to ensure that the same message goes out to the public.

Hudson said the Sebastian County emergency operations center would also be used to provide information to the public through the media. This includes information about how resources and services were being allocated, as well as other information to address certain issues as they unfold.

"... And that's very important, the role of the media helping us communicate to the general public about what we're doing to either plan for ... an event, including evacuating areas, or respond to services after an event has occurred," Hudson said. "Having good, reliable information from a single point of authority is also important in how these disasters are managed."

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